Compound Gallery’s New Institute of Fabrefaction

Compound Gallery and Studios kicked off November with a celebration of a massive addition to their sprawling art-making paradise with the opening of The Institute of Fabrefaction, expanding Compound’s space to over 12,000 sq. feet of art facilities. With the opening of the Institute, Compound’s main building just a few feet from the Institute can now be completely devoted to two-dimensional art making including letterpress, photography, and silkscreen printing, and the new place, with an Art Lab 3D printing studio and the Shop devoted tp metalwork, woodwork, and ceramics create a special place for those artists who wish to create three dimensionally. By providing dedicated spaces and giving such thoughtful consideration to artists’ multidisciplinary practices, The Institute of Fabrecation and Compound Gallery provide an encouraging environment for a wide array of artists, from those in residence to those who permanently work in the studios, to expand their practice into as many mediums as they wish to creatively engage.

Compound Gallery & Studios’ particular renovation process from a dilapidated space into The Institute of Fabrecation exemplifies the best of the local art community. The crowd-funding Indiegogo campaign earlier this year for the Institute raised more funds than it had projected. With these funds, Compound completely upgraded the space, including new electric wiring and plumbing, beautified the exterior’s sleek mid-century design with frosted floor to ceiling windows and utilitarian porch lamp, and updated much of the arts equipment. Further, many of the studio artists and members of Compound’s community volunteered their time to help repair the space. This new space, built in partnership with a devoted public in turn revitalized this block of 65th street, and will positively influence and contribute to the vitality of the arts here in Oakland and the Bay Area at large.

Oakland-based, Lost and Foundry studio artist Jeff Hantman’s curved, sculptural artwork that christened the white walls of the intimate Fabrefaction gallery in many ways also personified the ethos of fostering community and engagement prevalent in Compound Gallery’s latest endeavor. Its blend of printwork and found plywood sculpture illustrates an artist’s potential if unlimited in approach or material. Additionally, Hantman tells us in conversation on the opening night he connected with Compound’s owners while an employee of Clif Bar, with offices just across the street from the gallery. It seems that with Hantman, too the local community is eager and invited to engage with this new space. In the Compound Gallery & Studios main gallery, Kevin Bradley’s solo show, “Robots and Storetry: The Art of Letterpress Typography” revives the nearly lost art of Letterpress by modernizing the medium by developing his own type of poetry called “Storetry” — poetry/stories turned visual through posters of creatures made from the words of the poems.More about Compound Gallery & Studios, and the new Institute of Fabrecation can be found here.